I am interested in getting some blue Indiglo/Reverse Glow gauges for my Zetec. However, most of the ones I have seen only come in miles per hour. Can anyone point me to some which are in kilometers per hour. I know Birba make some, but I am not after that look, and i think they only glow in a green colour. I am after a similar one as shown in the following link (except in kmh):

Yeah an idea many of us have toyed with... problem is when you convert the dash to blue, you get the electronic odometer staying green... the photo at the bottom of that page is only after the guy has individualy changed the LED to blue for the LCD display. Otherwise it stays green and looks ghey.

You can actually buy LED's in blue to cover your dash, power windows, ciggy lighter, radio, clock and AC/heater switches... it's not cheap but about the same cost as buying a new guages anyway. You get the benefit of keeping your stock guages in km/h if you so desire... you can leave the needles red and change everything else to blue led's if you wish. Check out the following link for info on converting your radio foir example... all you need is a little soldering experience and half a knowledge about electronics. http://forum.ffoc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24402 and search the UK forum for the rest of you wish. Otherwise, you'll have trouble finding an indiglo tacho for the Focus that doesn't have miles per hour as it's usually just a US mod. Nobody makes them (yeat) in Oz. Assuming 28 for the stereo, 9 for the aircon/heater, up to 6 for window switches perhaps (2 door) then the dash which itself looks to be around 15 or so... plus ciggy lighter, LCD clock and LCD odometer... we're talking about 60 per car give or take 10% I guess, haven't actually looked properly at it. You just want to make sure than the blue lights somehow shine through the green template on the stock guages which I think is the case... Anyway, here's a great overall thread from the UK Focus OWner's Club forum... http://forum.ffoc.co.uk/forum/viewto...&highlight=led

You're looking round $2.50 per LED if you buy 100!!!!!! Not cheap but assuming you need about 50 to do the car all up, not too bad for 125 IMO and I'm sure somebody would me more than interested in going halves with you... it would look great in the Focus.

The blue LCD is something I would worry about after I have sourced a set of gauges worth putting in.

That is a handy post, one which I have read before, and exactly the type of look that I would be going for. Changing all the green on the dash to blue.

I am not interested in just changing all of the LEDs behind the gauges though. I would like to have the white background by day, and blue by night look. So keep an eye out for me when you guys are looking for other parts for your cars. The UK uses kmh I believe.

I have a bit of an electronics background, and one of the first rules that we learn is:

Never buy anything from Farnell. (Way way way way way too expensive!!! Only buy from them if you seriously cannot source the parts from elsewhere or you need them super urgently.)

have you thought about the st170 gauges? they're white faced and light up blue....not the same as those in your link....but still blue and would be easier to source...just a thought. although they do say "ST" in the middle of the dial....im sure you could deal with that if you so choose. i personally quite like the grey zetec dials i have...i find them to be quite nice to look at at day and night.

Just something to be aware when considering cracking open the dash - it's inviting rattles and squeaks to form. Hopefully not, but in my experience doing this, it can take a few tries and much frustration to track them down.

When I was looking at the very high intensity LED's (which you need, regular LED's ae not strong enough) for the EF Falcon, Jaycar had them the cheapest, and they were still about 5 bucks each on sale. Considering you need about 20-30 LEDs to replace them all (so you don't have green lights on your centre console while your dash is blue), it isn't cheap.

Actually on that one Tim... saw them taking the dash apart on an LX today in the workshop and I'll be damned if I have ever seen an easier 4 screw-removal job. It's literally as simple as undoing the screws on top of the black housing, pulling out the part (remembering to unplug the boot release button) and then just unscrewing the dash piece... the clear perspex/guages/backing is a whole piece that again just unclips from it's electrical harnesses. DEAD easy and really quick. But yes if you don't solder the bulbs in properly or re-screw the new guages properly onto the perspex etc it might rattle some, just not nearly as much as we all realise. It was actually a car that the speedo was stuck at maximum for some reason... faulty somehow... so they just up and replaced thw whole thing... funnily enough the LCD display and guage pod actually stores it's own odometer reading so putting in a new guages pod resets it to zero. The technician couldn't work out how to make the engine computer talk back to the guages and tell the LCD display to put it back to the 10k odd kilometres it read before. So I saw my first ever 0km reading on a car. Not sure if they even fixed it, they'll just record on the Ford system that it's actually not a new car, but he could theoretically sell it on as a new car if he had half a chance and could detail a car well

I also honestly LOVE the grey colour of the Zetec... having Machine Silver with the grey door inserts, grey dash piece, grey guage backing and the Zetec gear shift topped in grey I reckon it looks really well integrated and awesome!!! A classy sporty touch. Trim her in two tone grey and black leather and it'd be a droolworthy affair tell you what... I couldn't be bothered fiddling with my gauges in the end, honestly it works perfectly well, is highly visible and just isn't worth the hassle. Maybe over the CL or LX but at least the Zetec has red dials and a decent grey guage backing to make it kinda stand out...

Glad you enjoyed watching it. I realise removing the dash isn't difficult. It isn't electrical connections that cause rattling however (well, if they do, then your car has been at one hell of a dodgy auto electrician!), it's peices of dash rubbing together that causes the squeaks, or a loom that isn't quite returned they way it was previously held.

But as I said before, it doesnt always leave noises, good luck if you're doing it. Interesting about the odometer storing its own kms.

yeah I read about it on the focusfanatics forum too with people putting in SVT guages and getting totally different odometer readings. Will have to work out how they changed them and maybe let the guy at service know! HE said something about Ford not actually letting them change it. Defies logic to me, apart form being completely illegal... dodgy stuff. I could just tell Ford my guages are screwed and maybe evn physically pull it out and stuff something, then jsut get a newbie installed with 0kms... that sure beats 20,457kms he he he.

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